Comparative Soot Diagnostics (CSD)

An understanding of soot processes in flames produced in microgravity will contribute to our ability to predict fire behavior on
Earth. However, no soot measurements have been made of quasi-steady, microgravity flames. The Comparative Soot Diagnostics
(CSD) experiment will provide the first such measurements and will provide data useful for understanding soot processes on

Onboard USMP-3 on STS-75
Earth. Since fire detector systems currently flown on the shuttle and scheduled for use on Iternational Space Station (ISS) have
not been tested for quasi-steady, low-gravity sources of minute particles, this data will also be studied for its applicability to the
design and operation of future spacecraft smoke detection systems.